The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) will tomorrow host talks between the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and health service employers in a bid to resolve the row that has stalled the introduction of doctor-only medical cards.
The introduction of 200,000 of the cards promised by Minister for Health Mary Harney last November has been delayed because of a dispute between the sides on whether GPs should be paid higher fees for seeing patients with doctor-only medical cards when they reach 70 years of age, automatically becoming entitled to a full medical card.
Under the current system family doctors are paid approximately 3½ times more for treating patients who with a medical card provided on reaching 70 than for seeing patients who already had medical cards on reaching their 70th birthday.
The IMO is seeking to have GPs paid the higher rate for seeing holders of doctor-only medical cards when they reach the age of 70. The Department of Health and health service employers are refusing.
The Minister for Health Mary Harney warned recently that if the issue was not resolved by the end of the month she will explore other ways of paying for families on low incomes to visit their GP.
Payment of a 9 per cent benchmarking award for family doctors has also been made conditional with GPs co-operating with the introduction of the cards.